After returning to Waterfront City, the protagonist informs all the male, soldier and worker ants of the enemy's evacuation.

The entire "Waterfront City" immediately boiled over, and everywhere rejoiced, and in the eyes of the simple-minded and straightforward big-headed ants, the enemy's withdrawal showed that they had failed, and it meant that our side had won the defensive battle this winter.

The protagonist shakes his head, he feels that things are not so simple, the enemy's evacuation is not a retreat, they are very likely to have diverted the target of the attack, and it may be that the other secondary nests have already been attacked at this time. It is estimated that the overall situation of the battle this winter will not be known until the beginning of next spring.

However, the protagonist does not discourage everyone's enthusiasm, but still acquiesces to everyone's optimistic view, and increases the meat supply of all ants the next day as a simple means of celebration.

The next day, the protagonist sets foot on the land on the north bank of the river again.

The weather has been good these days, and the temperature has warmed up a lot, which is very suitable for outdoor activities.

Today, the protagonist has expanded the range of movement on the ground, and he still finds no trace of the paver ants moving there. Aside from the temporary departure base, the protagonist also doesn't find any other paving ant nests here.

The protagonist also conducts a comprehensive search of the temporary departure base again, and mentally constructs a three-dimensional topographical map of the place.

The protagonist is very interested in this place, because he considers that at the beginning of spring next year, according to the initial counterattack plan, once the Big-headed Ant Kingdom army sets foot on the north bank of the Great River, then they need a strong bridgehead to deal with the crazy counterattack of the Paving Ant Barbarian Army.

The river near Waterfront City is the most suitable place to cross the river, as it is the narrowest and the current is not too fast. And the way to cross the river, the protagonist already has a rough belly case.

But after crossing the river, how to resist the enemy's counterattack, this still needs to be well calculated.

The protagonist inspects the intact temporary departure base left by the Paving Ant Barbarian Army, just to assess whether this place can be directly used by me.

The protagonist is very pleased with the location of the temporary departure base, which is not far from the "Waterfront City" and can be reached by the Watara army very quickly. There is also no secondary nest of paving ant barbarians nearby, which means that the army that may cross the river in a short period of time will not be discovered, and there will be more time to complete the construction and reconstruction of defensive facilities.

In addition, there are several advantages to the temporary departure base:

First, the scale of the base is large.

After all, it is a base that can accommodate an army of 100,000 paving ant barbarians and a small amount of materials, and there is no need to expand at that time, and it is completely sufficient to station tens of thousands of big-headed ant expeditionary forces and a large number of materials in it.

Second, the facilities are relatively complete.

The paving ant barbarians also built the base here according to the standard of building a nest, and its building is high in the open field, about half a meter higher than the surrounding terrain, as long as there is no heavy precipitation, there is no need to worry about the harm of flooding. The interior of the nest has a drainage system that is as complete as other nests, which can effectively solve the stagnant water that seeps into the nest. And during the rainy season at the turn of spring and summer, flood protection is crucial for a nest.

Third, the surrounding resources are abundant.

Based on the surrounding geography and vegetation, the protagonist estimates that the food and other resources are abundant.

There is a large amount of crushed stone seeds near the entrance, which is uniform in size and can be used as ammunition for slingers without processing.

There is a lot of fertile soil for the growth of wild grasses in the vicinity, which can provide a large amount of grass seeds for the defenders. Insects that move in the grass are also an important source of meat.

The land near the riverbank has an exposed layer of clay that provides raw materials for the construction of ground forts or the firing of pottery.

These points make the protagonist very satisfied. But there are many dissatisfactions.

The main point is that when the Paving Ant Barbarian Army built this temporary departure base, it was not built according to the requirements of the nest that needed to be fortified.

It may be that because the Paving Ant Barbarian Army only used this as a starting position close to the local territory, and because it was located on the north bank of the Great River, there was no need to consider the problem of defense, so there was no investment in the design and construction of the structure related to the defense function.

For example, the base is close to the surface, and the overall space of the base is distributed with a low height and a wide plan. Once an enemy attackes, they only need to pass a short vertical distance to penetrate the innermost part of the base.

Being too shallow from the surface also leads to a weak temperature control ability of the base, which will be cold in winter and hot in summer, which will not be a good experience for the ants stationed there.

During the rainy season, a thin top layer of soil cannot prevent a large amount of rainwater from seeping in, and even with drainage facilities, some areas will become mud swamps.

Structurally, the site has nests for worker ants (soldier ants) and male ants, but there is no queen dormitory, hatchery and nursery room. The ideal bridgehead position envisioned by the protagonist must have a place for the queen ant, so that new warriors can be constantly produced to fill the war attrition when there is plenty of food.

In addition, the base is still a short distance from the river bank, and once surrounded by the enemy, it may lose contact with its own country on the south bank of the river, and can only be trapped in the isolated city.

In the protagonist's opinion, even if this temporary departure base of the Paving Ant Barbarian Army can be used as a bridgehead in the future, it also needs to be radically rebuilt, and troops must be invested to maintain the contact line with the mainland.

The amount of work, time, and troops required to do so is considerable, if not less than building a new nest.

The protagonist is still unsure whether to make the most of this temporary departure base and rebuild it, or simply start from scratch to find a suitable location to build a new fortress.

There are pros and cons to both, and it takes a lot of labor and time to start a new business, and if it is discovered by the Paving Ant Barbarian Army during this period and provokes a large-scale attack by the enemy, it is obviously more difficult and risky.

However, once the construction is completed, it is clear that the fortress built according to the protagonist's design will be several notches higher than the lair defense rebuilt on the basis of the temporary departure base.

Although the protagonist is a little hesitant, the plan to counterattack the north bank of the Great River in the spring was proposed by the protagonist himself at the meeting of the king of the main nest, and he is also obliged to implement this plan. Therefore, no matter how great the difficulty is, it cannot stop the protagonist from leading the army to launch a counterattack.

Now, the protagonist has no other kings around him, so on the one hand, there is no one to hinder him, and he can decide his own plans for the coming year, but on the other hand, he has no one to negotiate and must bear the corresponding responsibilities alone.

Putting these messy thoughts behind him, the protagonist decides to go back to the surface and see if there is a suitable location for a new fortress.